Where's the cat? Suzie Lucifer nearly disappears into the chair's pattern. It made me think of one of those picture puzzles. Suzie loves her chair and it's her vantage point to look out into the backyard and keep track of birds and squirrels. You can see bird seed just beyond the window, on the patio. Sometimes at night, with all the lights out, she sits there in her chair, a silent vigil underway. Maybe she sees raccoons, late at night, and they remind her of when we lived in Michigan and raccoons would come to the window to look her over.
My new novel, The Armageddon Two-Step, will be released on Dec. 3 by Redbat Books.
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So, just a thought on perception. I know that a few folks think this photo above is posed, but it's not. I have a friend who is a professional photographer and she did some shots for my first novel, Well Deserved. We were using alleys in Champaign, Illinois, for example, as potential locations. But the best shot -- to me -- was when we took a break in a cafe and she took the shot above as I was answering one of her questions -- caught, quite literally, in ponderous mid-thought. But not posed or attempted pretension! Still, it does look that way. Oh, well...
Above -- a custom built version of the famous Fender Telecaster, built by Daniel Strack in Chicago. It is complete now and ships to me this week. I'm excited. Dan built it from ash and walnut and it is expected to be very light--perhaps just six pounds. He chambered it to reduce weight. It's been eight weeks since it was commissioned and soon it will arrive and join the family of guitars -- and two cats!
New guitar in the house! To the right of one of my Telecasters, a new indulgence. I was at Vintage Music in downtown Aiken SC when I picked it up and felt how light it was and so I bought it. It's a Loar hollow body electric and sometimes you know that something feels right and you have to take it home. I suspect it was a reward of sorts to myself because I have been waiting several months for a handmade Telecaster that is being built by designer Daniel Strack in Chicago. The Strack Telecaster is supposed to be finished this week, I think, and ought to ship soon. Can't wait! It will be very light and feature a C profile neck reduced a little to make it a slim C profile. A good fit for my hands. If you enjoyed that look into my world of guitars, then also consider buying my novel The Armageddon Two-Step, which will be released on Dec. 3 by Redbat Books. The Armageddon Two-Step is a novel about reality and truth built for the Age of Trump; a comedic farce tinted with magical realism about a young man named Shelby Albert Goddard who saves the world and then must live with the consequences. --Michael Loyd Gray Blog and website: michaelloydgray.weebly.com We surround ourselves with the artifacts of our identities. They can be illustrated by what we have in our homes that is decorative or functional or even a little of both. Looking at this photo, I see a portion of my history at a quick glance: first off, there’s a cat—Yoda Lucifer – in her usual spot on the back of the sofa with a generous view of the large backyard and tall pines. And then there’s one of my seven guitars, a replica 1952 Fender Telecaster. And a small Fender amplifier, too. A guitar neck rests on the coffee table—it was replaced by a slimmer version that better suits my hands. Keith Richard’s autobiography occupies a place of honor on the coffee table alongside several other photo books of The Rolling Stones. One of them is their 50th anniversary volume, a gift from a literary agent I had a few years ago who abruptly died. She bought me the book on a trip to London. On the fireplace mantle – a poster of the famous Beatles Abbey Road photo, which also turned fifty recently. Below it is a weird but fascinating wood carving of dancing characters (Native American? African?) that I found in a Kalamazoo, Michigan antique store. Also on the mantle – food and drink menus from Bill Wyman’s Sticky Fingers restaurant in London, also a gift from my former agent, the late Pauline Vilain. One one side of the mantle is a University of Illinois logo embroidered by my mother. Below it on the floor, a painting of sailing ships that always reminds me of Michigan, especially on hot South Carolina days. A guitar strap is piled haphazardly on the floor, which somehow seems to suit it. If you enjoyed that peek into my living room, consider buying my new novel, The Armageddon Two-Step, which will be released on Dec. 3 by Redbat Books. The Armageddon Two-Step is a novel about reality and truth built for the Age of Trump; a comedic farce tinted with magical realism about a young man named Shelby Albert Goddard who saves the world and then must live with the consequences. --Michael Loyd Gray Blog and website: michaelloydgray.weebly.com Suzie Lucifer and Yoda Lucifer – the Lucifer Sisters -- are sister cats but not by birth. And yes, they certainly are devils! But loveable devils, of course. I found them both homeless at about six weeks old and perhaps a year apart. Suzie Lucifer appeared first, near the harbor at South Haven, Michigan. I kept hearing a sound and didn’t know what it was and so I traced it to a car and found a tiny orange kitten sitting on top of a tire and crying. She was hungry and I fed her whitefish from a nearby restaurant. Recently I wrote a children’s book about finding her called The Cat in Kalamazoo. I’m looking for a publisher who might want it. Driving Suzie Lucifer home to Kalamazoo that day, 33 miles way, was an adventure because I had to hold her in one hand and shift a manual transmission – while also steering (and manual steering at that) in a 1974 Datsun 260 Z I used to have. Just a year later, I heard a noise from outside my Kalamazoo house. It was summer and Suzie Lucifer alerted me to the sound as she sat in a window overlooking the driveway. The sound came and went, just like that day in South Haven when I found Suzie Lucifer. The first time I went out, I didn’t find anything, but the sound came back and I went out again and found a tiny grey and white kitten cowering in the bushes and she joined the household as Yoda Lucifer. Her face made me think of Yoda from Star Wars fame. I like to think that Suzie Lucifer kept my attention focused on the sound so that I would find her a sister to play with. Six years later, they still play together often and are truly the Lucifer Sisters. If you enjoyed that tale, consider buying my new novel, The Armageddon Two-Step, which will be released on Dec. 3 by Redbat Books. My blog/website is michaelloydgray.weebly.com The Armageddon Two-Step is a novel about reality and truth built for the Age of Trump; a comedic farce tinted with magical realism about a young man named Shelby Albert Goddard who saves the world and then must live with the consequences. --Michael Loyd Gray My curious kitty – Yoda Lucifer – might be wondering why the two guitars look like they must be the same. Both are Fender Telecasters, but they tell different stories. The one on the left is an American-made Pro Telecaster that was customized by a designer in Oregon to be exactly like (well, without decades of wear) the Telecaster (nicknamed “Micawber”) that Keith Richards plays often in the Rolling Stones. A closer look reveals that the Micawber replica has a brass bridge, Humbucker pickup and bridge pickup, and Sperzal locking tuners, for example—all of which add weight, making it heavier than its counterpart to the right, a 1952 replica made in Mexico. Cost difference? Plenty. You can pick up a new Mexican made Telecaster for $500 to $600 depending on fluctuating prices. The Micawber replica? That one has to be built for you and will cost around $1,700 to as much as $3,000 based on what I have seen and who is building it. Yet at the end of the day, which one do I play more? The cheaper, lighter, and somehow more comfortable Mexican version. It’s all about comfort. And by the way, I have a new novel coming out from Redbat Books on Dec. 3. It’s called The Armageddon Two-Step The Armageddon Two-Step is a novel about reality and truth built for the Age of Trump; a comedic farce tinted with magical-realism about a young man named Shelby Albert Goddard who saves the world and then must live with the consequences. |
AuthorMichael Loyd Gray is an author and a friend to cats, as well as a lifelong fan of the Rolling Stones, Chicago Bears, and Fender guitars. Archives
April 2020
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